Promotion
by L122yTorch
Summary: Auggie's promotion takes him to another department within the CIA. He and Annie are trying to cope with numerous changes as well as their ever-shifting relationship.
1. Chapter 1

"A promotion," the words stumbled past Annie's lips.

Auggie was desperate to read Annie's face. He couldn't stand being here in the dark, unable to read her expression and fill the empty space between them with the appropriate words. So with a deep sigh he pushed forward.

"I'm uh, starting in four days."

"And we're probably not going to see much of each other now that you're movin' on up," Annie uttered. "Probably not," Auggie replied, "As one of the three faces for the CIA, I'm going to be pretty busy."

"I'm happy for you," Annie lied through her teeth, grateful that Auggie couldn't see her face, which was quickly twisting with dismay.

"I have to get back to work," Annie said spinning and heading out the door. That was a lie, and she knew that he'd know it was a lie. Knowing that he could easily figure out to go to the womens bathroom, she headed downstairs to the restroom on another floor.

Her stilettos echoed in the stairwell as she struggled to keep it together for two more minutes. Her breath was catching in her chest, a lump arose in her throat, fiery tears burned behind her eyes.

She crashed through the door to the womens restroom, scanned it for others and then locked the door. Her warm hands gripped the cold sink beneath her, tears breaking free and spilling down her face.

Losing Auggie was something she was never prepared to do. The thought of someone else's voice on the end of the phone, someone else's face across from hers at the bar, someone else's words telling her that everything's going to be okay.

It felt like her world was crashing down around her. Nothing was ever going to be the same.

She could do tricky missions overseas, she could keep cool in a firefight, she could jump out of a plane without a parachute and have a fistfight at 3,000 feet, but the thought of losing Auggie was terrifying.

Auggie stood in his now former office shocked at how quickly Annie ducked out of the room. His heart physically ached at the thought of hurting Annie, at the thought of leaving her.

He remained still, unsure of whether he should follow her or leave her alone. He pictured her in the bathroom trying to pull herself together but giving into the occasional sob. He thought about how she would pull her hair back and look into the mirror at her ruined makeup. He imagined the words that she would tell herself to get up the courage to walk back out the door.

He stood there for so long that he eventually reached the conclusion that it was too late to chase after her. Plus, he doubted she wanted to be found.

Planned steps brought Auggie back to his desk where a lone box sat. His hands skimmed the contents that sat inside. Auggie listened as his own breath became ragged and desperate, and heard a teardrop hit the box.

Annie was ready and willing for a case to take her out of the city. Work over the last few weeks had been empty and difficult without Auggie.

Last week Annie was in an interesting situation, she wasn't sure what direction to go in. This would have been the opportune time for Auggie to step in and serve up his sage advice. But instead of his clean-cut frame sauntering towards her desk, she sat in silence, puzzled.

Annie found her way to his new office. From what she could tell, Auggie was on the tail end of a phone conversation. His brow was furrowed in concentration, his voice was deep and serious, his eyes trained on some unforeseeable mission.

Annie waited in the doorframe, a smile stretched across her face at the familiar person sitting behind the oak desk.

"Annie," the words dropped out of his mouth with little emotion.

"Wow Auggie," breathed, walking towards the desk, "I would have expected a more enthusiastic welcome from you." 

"Sorry Annie. I'm just…quite busy at my new post." "Well, I just have this interesting job, it's taken a lot of turns, and…" "Annie," Auggie interrupted. "I'm sorry…but I can't help you."

The words tumbled past Auggie's lips and echoed through the new office. Annie didn't move, she couldn't speak, all she could do was listen to Auggie's breathing as he waited for her reaction or response.

"Annie?" his resolve was nearly cracking. The silence was eating away at him, he felt in itch to lean on her, to let her in. But he couldn't. "I'm sorry Annie," he paused. "I just have a lot to do, and technically we're not co-workers anymore. But I'm sure that we'll catch up sometime soon."

Annie couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was passing her off; he had gone to being her friend to acting like some barely mutual acquaintance. "Yeah, sure. Sorry to bother you," Annie said, turning and walking out of the room with a pit in her stomach.

As she walked down the corridor away from his new office, Annie felt completely on her own. Like she was dangling in the ether, removed from work as she knew it and scrambling in the dark to gain her footing.

"How are things going," Joan caught her in the hall before she could enter the office. "Uh…fine," was all she could muster. "I know that things aren't the same since Auggie was transferred Annie. But I have every confidence that you are more than capable of standing on your two feet when it comes to this job. But I understand," she said as she walked with Annie into the office.

"I have an assignment for you," Joan said slipping a file into Annie's hand.


	2. Chapter 2

In the middle of her NASA assignment Annie found herself sorely missing her familiar technical help. The moment she shared with Auggie in his office, when her cold hands met the soft fabric of his tie, she knew things would never be the same. Of course Auggie was a good friend, but she found herself actually wondering how she was going to get by without him.

The mission was all sorts of twisted and in those crucial moments when Auggie's voice provided an ounce of reason she instead found silence. It was more than just missing a co-worker. She founds her thoughts straying to him constantly, to the point where it was becoming a real distraction.

Every time she ran into him it was like catching a breath of fresh air, all along unaware that you were in fact starving for oxygen. And that scared her. If her time at the CIA had taught her anything it was that if you can't function on your own you're dead in the water. Oh yeah, that and, never trust anyone. But she trusted Auggie, more than anyone else.

When Annie had received the call from Auggie that he was back pure elation was all she could feel. A smile a mile wide stretched across her face. Even in the midst of racing to a vulnerable teenagers aid she felt better than ever.

The NASA mission had wrapped up nicely before the weekend, which flew by. But in her spare time Annie still caught herself thinking of Auggie frequently.

It was Sunday night and Annie lie in bed staring out at her dark room. Her sleek black iPod sat in her right hand, Rex Mundi's "Nothing At All" floated into her head space, intermingling with Auggie's face.

She had no idea the impact of nearly losing him would have on her; until now. She was thinking about him too much, and chastising herself for it, hence her sleep deprivation on this quiet Sunday night.

She sighed heavily into the darkness, rolled over and attempted to fall asleep. She avoided looking at the clock, not even wanting to know how late it was. The rhythmic music on her iPod finally lulled her into a dream state.

…

It was awkward walking down the familiar halls with his things. Auggie was determined to succeed at everything he set upon, and it's not like he failed at the job, it just wasn't right for him. But that didn't stop him from feeling like a fool.

He knew he was well liked around the office and received warm welcomes from everyone but he couldn't help but wonder what they were really thinking behind their plaster smiles.

His office was set back up in no time. It was like nothing had changed, and everything had changed, all at once.

Auggie sat at his desk that Monday morning typing furiously away at his keyboard, responding to emails, getting some projects set up and in the occasional spare moment playing a quick game of solitaire. He fit right back into where he had left, but something was missing.

He had been secretly waiting for a familiar voice to enter his space. He had been waiting for Annie to come busting in with the welcome wagon, but she never came.

Auggie had passed her desk, had gotten more than a few sips from the water fountain in the hall, had taken a couple of trips to the restroom and still, there was no sign of her.

Back at his desk Auggie rotated the sleek cool iPhone in his hands over and over. He felt like a 15-year-old boy waiting for his crush to call him. _This is pathetic_ he thought to himself.

He wondered what her face looked like when he had called her and told her that he was coming back. He could hear the excitement and relief in her voice. He wondered what her smile looked like.

Lost in thought, Auggie was startled when his phone vibrated from a text.

"Hey Auggie, sry I didn't get the chance to say welcome back

Came in super early, got an assignment and caught a plane

ttyl

-Annie"

Auggie tossed his phone on his desk, listening as it crashed into the keyboard and heaved a sigh into his office.

"Wow, already frustrated," Joan coyly asked. "No." "Good, because you've got a job to do and there is no time for emotions," Joan said closing the office door.

…

The loud hum of the airplane engines offered to bring sleep to Annie and she accepted the invitation without hesitation. Her phone still in her lap from her text to Auggie received no reply and she drifted off among the clouds.

Annie wasn't too crazy about this assignment, for some reason it gave her a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She told herself that she was just being ridiculous and brushed off her uneasiness. Sleep was a welcome distraction from thinking about the mission, from thinking about Auggie. She had jumped at the bit to get a job that would take her away from the states so she could clear her head.

Granted, it was a dangerous mission, but weren't they all?

…

Auggie couldn 't have predicted how tumultuous the next two weeks were going to be. He provided as much back up as he could for Annie while she was overseas gathering information and watching a person of interest. He just wished he could be there.

He didn't often talk about his injuries with others, he didn't particularly like opening up. But it was moments like these, moments when he felt especially "in the dark," during a mission that he longed to be in the field.

Here he was, sitting in an air-conditioned office sipping a caramel mocha while Annie was hunting down a known-assassin whose next target was a prominent political figure.

All of his training was screaming at him that he needed to get out there and physically do something. But he spent his days doing all he could to help inform Annie and his nights convincing himself that his role was still crucial.

He didn't like the assignment from the outset and having limited contact with Annie only made things more difficult. He hadn't heard her voice for too long and it was making him uneasy.

Auggie forced himself out of the office late Thursday night, a week and a half after Annie had started this mission. It was midnight and there was nothing else he could do for the day. He sat at his desk with his elbows propped on the flat surface, his hands holding his head.

When he had finally reached his apartment and heard the door click shut he felt the weight of the day, of the week, bearing down upon him. Suddenly he felt exhausted, like the life was being sucked out of him.

All he wanted was to talk to Annie. To make sure she was okay, to hear her voice to…reach out to her.

Auggie's well-defined back slumped against the door to his apartment. His usually lean form looking limp in the shadows strewn across his apartment. His neatly trimmed suit looked unkempt and his hair mussed. He knew that dark circles would be forming underneath his tired eyes.

With measured steps Auggie made his way to the bed, undressing along the way. He poured himself into the soft sheets and allowed his lead eyelids to close.

Three hours later Auggie nearly had a heart attack when his phone rang. His hand sprung out in the dark, he nearly fell off the bed. Frantically he answered the phone and breathed a desperate "Annie?" into the receiver.

"Sorry Auggie," Joan's voice replied. "We need you to pack up immediately. Annie is totally off the grid, she missed a crucial checkpoint, and we're getting concerned. You and Jai are headed out on the next flight to find out the status of the mission and bring back Annie. Get here as soon as you can."

Fear racked Auggie as he sprung out of bed and bolted for the door.


End file.
